This release is the largest update to Strawberry Perl ever. It was built with the 4th generation WiX-based builder Perl-Dist-WiX. Because of that, we now generate an .msi installer, instead of an .exe one. This allows Strawberry Perl to be installable across entire organizations using Active Directory.

The icons in the start menu have been improved and are now correct, and a "Live Support" link has been added to the start menu that connects to the #win32 IRC channel.

The uninstallation process also removes the environment values it installs, and removes CPAN modules that were installed after Strawberry Perl has been installed.

The modules that are built in to Strawberry Perl have been upgraded, to include versions that support CPAN auto-upgrade and configure_requires.

DBD::mysql and local::lib are also included within the default install.

When uninstalling Strawberry Perl, there is no feedback when searching for files to delete.

The CPAN client closes too quickly when the lock file exists.

5.8.9.2-1 WILL NOT INSTALL over 5.8.9.2 without manually uninstalling first.In the future, major bug fixes for Strawberry Perl outside of the quarterly release cycle will either increment the version number, or be provided as .msi patches, or both. However, upgrading is not required to fix the issue below.

Corrected in 5.8.9.2-1: Win32::Process and some other XS modules will not install due to a buggy version of ExtUtils::ParseXS that was included in 5.8.9.2. (CPAN RT #48384)

How to update ExtUtils::ParseXS to 5.8.9.2-1's version without uninstalling 5.8.9.2:

(bold-italic text is what is typed, other text is where you type it at.)

You may wish to install IPC::System::Simple before you exit the CPAN prompt. That'll serve two purposes: 1) It tests that Win32::Process will indeed build with the fix installed (because ISS depends on Win32::Process) and 2) It allows system() to be autodie'd - which I couldn't include in 5.8.9.2 due to this problem.